Dedication
To my readers, thank you so much for supporting me, and keeping me going. I hope you’ll enjoy reading this book as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it.
Chapter One
“He can’t do this to you! We’ll fight him and his damn company—if that’s what needs to be done, but Saunders will remain in business!” Lila slammed her fist on the dinner table, making the plates and utensils clatter against it.
Jesse Saunders wagged his finger from side to side with a shake of his head. “Watch your language, young lady.”
Even at twenty-seven, Lila had to censor her words around her father, who thought it unladylike for women to swear. Lately, she’d been doing a lot of it.
“I’m sorry, Dad, but we can’t sit back and watch everything you’ve worked so hard to build be destroyed by some reclusive property developer. This is your livelihood and our home.” Tears stung the backs of her eyes as she blinked them away. It didn’t seem fair they should lose everything on some rich man’s whim.
“Dad, there has to be something we can do to stop them. They can’t just take our home like this! Saunders is your life.” She wiped away an angry tear that had escaped the corner of her eye. Lila didn’t want to break down in front of her father, especially when he was probably trying to stay strong for her. But emotion threatened to overwhelm her.
Jesse pushed his half-eaten dinner away and placed his head in his hands. “You’re right. It’s my life, not yours, and I’ve depended on you for far too long.”
Lila’s breath caught in her throat. Surely he wasn’t thinking of giving up. “What are you trying to say, Dad?”
Her father lifted his head with the suspicious sheen of tears glistening in his eyes. “Baby, this is my battle to fight. Not yours. I’m guilty of leaning on you a lot more than I should have. I ought to be the one taking care of you, not the other way around.”
She waved her hand dismissively. “Don’t be ridiculous. If you can’t count on family, who else can you depend on? I’m not doing anything I don’t want to do.”
“Lila, your heart is in the right place, but maybe it’s time to wave the white flag. I’m an old man, and although there’s nothing I’d like more than to keep the shop running until the day I die, I don’t think I can do it on my own and fight Ramsey’s.”
Lila reached across the table and grasped her father’s hand in earnest. “Daddy, you have me.”
“And that’s the problem,” he sighed.
She wasn’t sure whether to be hurt or angry at his comment. “Why is my being here a problem?”
He held up his hand. “That came out wrong.”
“How else am I supposed to take it when you imply you don’t need me, that you don’t want me around?”
Jesse shook his head vehemently. “Baby girl, I’ll always need you, but like I said, I can’t keep leaning on you so much. You’re a young, beautiful woman—exceptionally so.”
Lila snorted, rolling her eyes. “Don’t start that again.”
“It’s true.”
“Fathers are supposed to say things like that to their daughters.”
“I don’t say anything I don’t mean. I see the way men look at you. You’re the image of your mother, God rest her soul. I used to wonder how a mug like me was lucky enough to end up with an angel like my Eloise. She could have had anyone she wanted, you know, but for some reason she chose me.”
A smile touched Lila’s lips at the mention of her mother. She didn’t remember her, but listening to her father reminisce made Lila feel closer to the woman who’d given her life. “Who are you trying to kid? You know you’re a good-looking man. Mrs. Reyes comes by the shop every day and it’s not to purchase milk. She has a crush on you.” Lila giggled. There were quite a few women who gave him more than a second glance.
It was her father’s turn to brush her comments aside. “Gloria is a nice lady. She’s just looking for a little conversation.”
“And a lot of you.”
His lips firmed to one thin line as he shook his head. “You won’t distract me from the topic. As I was saying, you’re young and you should have a life of your own. You need to go back to your job, and find a nice young man to settle down with and give me some grandbabies.”
Not this subject again. She should have known he would somehow steer the conversation in this direction. “Dad, I’m not interested in a relationship right now.”
“Is that what you told that doctor you were seeing before I had my stroke?”
“That was nothing.” The words came out a bit quicker than she intended.
Jesse lifted a brow, a knowing expression on his face. “You used to talk about him nonstop. I thought the two of you would get married.”
“It wasn’t serious, Dad.” Lila couldn’t quite meet his eyes. She didn’t like lying to her dad. The truth was, Jason had asked her to marry him, but he couldn’t understand why she had devoted so much of her time toward seeing her father get better.
“For God’s sake, hire a private nurse! I’ll pay for it. I don’t think it’s too much of me to expect my woman to spend some time with me,” he’d said one day after another heated argument. Dr. Jason Orija wasn’t used to being neglected by anyone and had no problem letting her know it.
“I’m a nurse. How could I put him in someone else’s care when I’m quite capable of handling the job myself? I can’t just ignore that fact. Besides, he’s my father. I wouldn’t expect you to abandon any of your family members if they required assistance. He needs me.”
“I need you. You’re going to have to make a decision: It’s either me or him.”
That ultimatum had been the final straw in a string of problems between the two of them. She did love Jason, or at least Lila thought she did, but how could she stay with someone who would force her to make such a choice? Lila realized then she couldn’t. Jason hadn’t taken it well, and not even a week later he was dating someone else, another nurse at the hospital. His actions had reaffirmed to Lila she’d made the right decision.
Jesse gave his daughter a long hard look. “You haven’t lied to me since you were five years old and didn’t want me to find out you’d broken your mother’s favorite vase. You’re not very good at lying, baby. I believe I’m doing the right thing.”
Lila’s heart beat a tattoo against her breast. “What? You’ve made a decision?”
“I’m going to sell. I won’t let you waste your life taking care of me and fighting a war we can’t win.” Pain oozed from his voice, and his dark face looked gray all of a sudden.
Alarm shot through her. “Daddy, are you all right?” She rushed to his side.
“Don’t you worry, child. It’s just this old heart. Get me my pills and I’ll be okay.”
Lila wasted no time retrieving the prescription bottle from the medicine cabinet and a glass of water. On top of recovering from a stroke, he often suffered heart palpitations due to stress and unhealthy eating habits even though she tried her best to regulate the latter. The entire situation had taken its toll on him physically and mentally.
How could she let him give up something that meant so much to him? If only he didn’t have the worry of what would happen to the shop, Lila was sure he’d get better. Selling the place would kill him, slowly but surely.
There had to be something she could do. Thus far, none of her efforts from writing Ramsey’s, the local newspapers, and attending town council meetings, were getting her anywhere. Her one last resort would be to go to Ramsey’s headquarters in Manhattan and demand a meeting with the CEO. Failure was not an option.
She needed to get out of their apartment for some fresh air. Seeing her father like this was heartbreaking and there was only so much she could take at the moment. “I can’t argue with you if that’s how you feel. I’m going to take a walk. Will you be okay?”
“I’ve been taking care of myself long before you were born. I’ll be fine.” Jesse waved her off.
Lila stood up and walked over to her father before giving him a kiss on the top of the head. She didn’t take offense to his gruff tone. Her father’s frustrations were understandable. “Okay, Daddy. I’ll be back in a bit.”
Once outside she breathed a huge sigh of relief. She didn’t mind taking care of her father but sometimes she needed a break. Walking through the neighborhood she’d grown up in filled her with joy and sadness. She saw the street corner where she’d fallen off her bike when she was ten that had left a moon-shaped scar on her knee. Lila spied the water ice stand where she and her friends would eat cherry ices on a hot summer’s day. The pizza shop and the two dollar movie theater were places she used to frequent when she was younger. Now they were all gone, bought out by some greedy land baron.
She tried not to cry as she strolled the blocks of places she used to frequent. Finally she ended up in the park where a few children played on the jungle gym. How could she give up the fight when this place meant so much to her? It was her home where she’d made so many memories. This place was worth fighting for and she refused to give up no matter what her father said.
Jarring rap music cut through her thoughts. Lila pulled her cell phone from her pocket and made a mental note to change her ring tone later that night. She’d chosen this particular song because it was popular at the time and had a catchy beat but the radio had played it so much, she was sick of hearing it. When she saw who the call was from, Lila was tempted not to answer, but knowing him he would keep calling until they finally spoke. It was better to get this over with and nip whatever he wanted in the bud.
“Jason, what do you want?”
The son of Nigerian immigrants who were both doctors, Jason was a respected trauma surgeon at the hospital Lila was a geriatric nurse. One of the youngest in his field, he was already one of the bests at what he did on the East Coast. Besides, being successful, he was incredibly good looking. All off the single women at the hospital gushed over how brilliant and handsome he was, and even a few of the married ones as well. The problem with Jason was that he knew it too and was more than a little arrogant. But Lila was so flattered that someone like him had chosen her when he had so many options that she’d decided to give him a chance. Besides, he could be quite charming when he wanted to be, not to mention he was a good lover. During the course of their relationship he’d swept Lila off her feet with his grand and romantic gestures, but looking back on that relationship, she saw that it had blinded her to the cracks in their foundation.
Jason loved talking about himself and rarely asked Lila about what she wanted. He often looked down on people he thought he was better than like people in the service industry. And he was inconsiderate of Lila’s schedule. But whenever he’d do something romantic for her, she fooled herself into thinking that their problems were simply just regular couples’ woes. When he’d made Lila choose between him and her father, the blinders had come off. Maybe she did need to date more according to her father, but when she didn’t she had no plans of taking up with Jason again.
“And hello to you as well, Lila. How are you?”
She rolled her eyes, in no mood for pleasantries. “Again, I’m asking why you’re calling. We’re no longer dating and I’m on leave at the hospital so I can’t think of one good reason why you haven’t lost my number yet.”
There was a pregnant pause on the other end of the line followed by a heavy sigh. “I would have hoped that you’d be happy to hear from me.”
“Are you kidding me? When you gave me that ultimatum and I chose my father, it was over.”
There was another long pause before Jason answered. “I was thinking…and maybe I was too hasty. I shouldn’t have made you choose. We could have worked it out.”
“I might have believed that a few months ago but the next week we broke up, you were dating Veronica.” Veronica worked on the same floor at the hospital but in the oncology department. They had been friendly until Lila began dating Jason. After that, the other woman wouldn’t acknowledge her presence. Since they hadn’t been particularly close, Lila never gave it much thought until Jason went right to her after their breakup.
“That was a miscalculation. I thought you’d come to your senses and contact me.”
“So basically you tried to make me jealous. I would think that playing those kinds of high school games would be beneath the dignity of the great Dr. Orija.”
“Don’t be like that, Lila. I admit I made a mistake. I understand that family is important and I shouldn’t have put you in a position to choose.”
“I’m glad you admit that, Jason, but I’m still not sure why you needed to call and tell me something I already know.”
“You never used to be so disagreeable.”
Lila was way too stressed to put up with his bullshit. “I used to be a lot of things, Jason. Can you get to the point?”
“You’re not making this easy for me. I don’t make a habit of chasing women because truthfully, I can have any woman I want and we both know that. But I don’t want just any woman. I want you. You’re beautiful, accomplished even though you’re just a nurse but that doesn’t matter. You can always back to school and get your MSN. Besides that, my parents like you and you know how to handle yourself in a social setting.”
“I see.” Lila regretted the two years they’d dated because she could never get them back. In his righteous conceit he showed her exactly why she made the right decision to dump him. “So I guess you weren’t able to mold Veronica in to the image of the perfect woman.”
“Veronica comes from a different background. She’s a little rough around the edges if you know what I mean.”
“No actually I don’t, why don’t you tell me, Jason.” Lila did know what he was getting at but she wanted to know if he’d says the words out loud.
“Let’s just say that you can take the girl from streets, but you can’t take the streets from the girl.”
“Wow. How did it take me so long notice what a pompous asshole you are?”
“Excuse me?”
“Oh, you’re excused, from this conversation and from out of my life.” And with that, she pressed the end button on her phone and turned it to silent. Seconds later it vibrated signaling that she had another call. It was probably Jason, incredulous that Lila actually had the audacity to hang up on him.
She couldn’t let his feelings bother her right now because she had far more important things to worry about. And her number one priority was saving her father’s store.
Later that night, after she’d done the cleaning up and her father was in bed, Lila flopped on the couch from exhaustion. Was it already three years since they’d received that damned letter, an offer to purchase the building they lived in? The problem being, it wasn’t only their home, but where her father’s business was housed. Shortly afterwards, her father suffered his stroke. Lila had taken leave from her position as a geriatric nurse to assist during her father’s recovery and rehabilitation, as well as manage the store while dealing with a property developer.
After refusing to sell out for months, Lila learned the city was interested in purchasing their property under eminent domain. Apparently the powers that be at Ramsey’s had friends in high places. If the city bought their home, they could sell it for as much—or as little—to Ramsey’s as they wanted to. From that point on, her father seemed to age before her very eyes.
She picked up one of the newspapers she’d saved. It was months old, but it had an article within in it that talked of the plans for the shopping center and all the stores that would be included—in her neighborhood. Who were they kidding? Didn’t they realize people had lost their homes and businesses in order for this waste of mortar to be built? She scanned the rest of the article which discussed the developers of the project and the head man himself, Hunter Jamison.
Dubbed “the Beast” for his aggressive business tactics, he’d taken over the nearly bankrupt Ramsey’s over ten years ago and turned it into one of the largest companies of its kind in the country. The paper contained an earlier picture of him and he looked every bit the Viking he was said to be descended from. Larger than life in the photograph, with his broad shoulders and barrel-sized chest, he seemed more suited for a football field than an office.
Wavy blond hair framed an extremely attractive face with its square jaw, long straight nose, and surprisingly full lips. Lila thought he looked a little too perfect. Too bad for all his looks, he harbored a black heart.
Though she’d read this article a dozen times, she continued on, looking for some kind of clue that might help her. Lila placed the newspaper on the coffee table and picked up a more recent issue. This particular article focused solely on the man and the accident which had nearly cost him his life. Obviously the accident didn’t prevent him from ruining her father’s life. Lila was tired of this waiting game. She had to act now.
It was time to confront The Beast.